Jeremy Hunt distances himself from adviser who 'overstepped the mark'

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt admits to the Commons that his special adviser
Adam Smith went too far in his emails to News Corporation's representatives,
but denies any personal involvement.

2:24PM BST 25 Apr 2012

The Culture Secretary made a hastily arranged statement to the House of Commons amid claims he secretly backed the media company's bid to take over satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

At the time, Mr Hunt was acting in a “quasi-judicial” role charged with ruling on whether the take over would be allowed.

In public, the Culture Secretary insisted he was acting in an independent and impartial manner, but a series of emails from his office appear to show his key political adviser giving confidential information to a lobbyist working for James Murdoch on a regular basis over several months.

Mr Hunt told MPs that he had handled the bid with "scrupulous fairness" and he was not influenced in any way by contacts with News Corp.

He claimed it was "categorically not the case" that the emails were evidence that a back channel existed for News Corp to influence his decision.